GUATEMALAN MAN SENTENCED TO FEDERAL PRISON FOR ILLEGAL REENTRY AFTER MULTIPLE PRIOR REMOVALS

PENSACOLA, FLORIDA – Frizli Merari Miguel-Martinez, 35, of Guatemala, was sentenced to eight months in federal prison for Illegal Reentry by a Removed Alien. The sentence was announced by John P. Heekin, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.

U.S. Attorney Heekin said: “The defendant not only repeatedly violated our national laws by illegally entering our country, he also committed numerous crimes while here. President Donald J. Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi have promised to Take Back America by making the enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws a top priority, and my office will continue to aggressively pursue these cases to ensure habitual illegal alien offenders are prosecuted, punished, and then swiftly removed from our country.”

On April 14, 2025, a deputy with the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office arrested Miguel-Martinez pursuant to a traffic stop. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) subsequently determined that Miguel-Martinez, a native and citizen of Guatemala, was illegally present in the United States.  Miguel-Martinez had previously been removed from the United States once in 2017 and twice in 2019 for his illegal presence in this country.  During his stints in the United States, Miguel-Martinez acquired a long history of traffic offenses including convictions for leaving the scene of an accident, failure to appear, and providing false information to law enforcement on multiple occasions.  Miguel-Martinez was previously convicted for Illegal Reentry in the Northern District of Florida and for Illegal Entry in the District of Arizona.

An ICE detainer has been lodged against Miguel-Martinez, and he will begin deportation proceedings after he serves his federal prison term.  The imprisonment sentence will be followed by a one-year term of supervised release, meaning if he returns to the United States during such timeframe, he will potentially face an additional period of incarceration related to violating his supervision.          

The case involved a joint investigation between ICE’s operational directorates, Homeland Security Investigations and Enforcement Removal Operations.  Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer H. Callahan prosecuted this case.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America (https://www.justice.gov/dag/media/1393746/dl?inline ) a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida is one of 94 offices that serve as the nation’s principal litigators under the direction of the Attorney General.  To access public court documents online, please visit the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida website. For more information about the United States Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Florida, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/fln/index.html.